The present invention relates to games in general, and more particularly to improvements in magnetic toys, games or game devices of the type wherein one or more playing pieces are confined in an enclosure between two spaced-apart parallel walls and such playing pieces can be moved relative to the walls by one or more impellers in the form of or including permanent magnets.
It is already known to propel playing pieces, which include permanent magnets and are disposed at one side of a nonmagnetic wall, by one or more permanent magnets constituting impeller means at the other side of such wall. The impeller means can serve to attract the playing piece or pieces, for example, in a manner as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,668,389. In accordance with another prior proposal, the impeller means serves to repel the playing piece or pieces; reference may be had to U.S. Pat. No. 3,214,171 or to German Pat. No. 836,462. German Offenlegungsschrift No. 24 30 826 discloses a different magnetic game wherein each of several players manipulates two permanent magnets having different polarities and disposed in different planes. The playing pieces constitute or include permanent magnets having different polarities so that one magnet in the hands of a player attracts playing pieces having a first polarity and the other magnet in the hands of the same player attracts playing pieces having a different second polarity.
A drawback of the above outlined games is their limited versatility because all the players can do is to repel or attract the playing pieces. This becomes boring after a relatively short period of use.